


L is for Letter

by Jazzie



Series: A to Z of Danny Whump! [12]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9588659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jazzie/pseuds/Jazzie
Summary: A letter should be harmless, right?!





	

Danny grinned at his daughter as she entered the kitchen of his new apartment. Grace’s hair was in a tangled mess and her eyes were half closed from only just having woken up.  
“Morning Monkey,” he greeted.  
“Hmmm, morning Danno,” she slid onto a stool at the kitchen counter as Danny put a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice in front of her.  
“Eat, drink, wash and dress!” he ordered.  
She started eating and in between mouthfuls asked, “What are we doing today?”  
“I don’t know yet. I thought we could decide together, once you’re dressed.”  
“’K,” she turned her concentration back to devouring her breakfast. She, like her father, wasn’t really a morning person.  
Breakfast finished, Grace headed for the bathroom to clean her teeth and have a wash before getting dressed. Danny cleaned up the breakfast things and tidied up. He’d had his shower while Grace had still slept, despite not being a morning person, if he had Grace then he made sure he was up early, he didn’t want to waste a moment of their time together.  
The knock at the door surprised him. He wasn’t expecting anybody, wondering if it was Super SEAL come to crash his Saturday, he peered out of the window next to the door to be greeted by a man in a courier uniform. Danny hadn’t ordered anything, so took a good look at the surrounding area before opening the door.  
“Morning. Delivery for Daniel Williams,” the courier smiled cheerfully.  
“I’m not expecting anything. Where’s it from?”  
The courier checked before responding, “New Jersey. No name.”  
That was odd; if it had been from a member of his family they’d have included their name on the return address. The courier was clearly getting impatient, so Danny reached for the electronic pad and signed for the package.  
Once he was back in the kitchen he placed the A4 sized envelope on the counter and eyed it warily. He didn’t recognise the address but he kept in touch with some of his old precinct by email and he didn’t know all of their addresses off the top of his head. It wouldn’t be the first time one of them had sent him something. Turning over the envelope he opened it and was relieved when nothing happened. He rolled his eyes at his own paranoia, he held the envelope with his left hand, he prised it open with his right and tried to peer in to the darkness but all he could see was a folded piece of paper. Shrugging and wondering if this was another one of his friend’s idea of a practical joke, he put his right hand in and pulled the paper out. That was when a small explosion erupted.  
“Daddy?!” Grace ran out into the hallway heading for the kitchen.  
“Grace, stay where you are,” Danny ordered.  
“Are you alright?”  
“I’m fine Monkey. Just somebody’s idea of a joke.” The father was amazed at how steady his voice was, because his hands were shaking as the envelope lay smoking on his kitchen counter. A letter bomb or a practical joke gone wrong? The detective just knew that this was no joke. Ignoring his stinging face, hands and arms he decided that he needed to get Grace out of the apartment.  
“Monkey, how do you feel about going over to Uncle Steve’s today?” he called out.  
“OK,” the response was slightly wobbly and seeing her Dad wasn’t likely to reassure her, since he could already see his hands reddening.  
“Grab your bags; I think we’ll stay there this weekend, it’s been a while since you spent some quality time with Uncle Steve.”  
Grace quickly did as she was told while Danny slipped into the bathroom, allowing him a few minutes to try to calm the shaking. Catching sight of his reflection in the mirror didn’t help any, his face was red as if he’d been out in the sun too long. How was he going to explain this to his eight year old daughter?  
“I’m ready Danno!”  
Well he didn’t have time to think about that now; he needed to get Grace out of the apartment, somewhere safe. He couldn’t think of anywhere safer on Oahu than somewhere that had Steve Super SEAL McGarrett.   
There was a knock at the door encouraging him to move, walking past Grace he checked the window again and saw his next door neighbour. Taking a deep breath he opened the door.  
“Morning Mrs Ellis.”  
“Danny, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Sylvie,” chided the elderly woman. “I heard a loud bang, is everything alright? Oh, your face!”   
“Everything’s fine Sylvie, one of my friends decided to play a practical joke and they went a bit far.”  
“Well you should have a long talk with that so called friend young man! Can I do anything?”  
“Actually I was wondering if I could possibly borrow your car. The Camaro is playing up,” someone had sent him an exploding letter, he didn’t want to refer to it as a letter bomb again, that just seemed too melodramatic, and he didn’t want to risk someone having set a device on the Camaro. Paranoid? Yes. Safer not to use it just in case? Definitely.  
“Of course you can, just a minute and I’ll get you the keys.”  
She was back moments later with the keys to her dark blue Hyundai Accent. “Thanks Sylvie, I’ll drop it back in a couple of hours,” Danny promised.  
“That’s fine Danny; my daughter is coming to take me out, so if I’m not home just drop the keys through my door.”  
Watching to make sure she got back to her apartment without any issues, Danny then turned back to his daughter, “Ready?”  
“Danno, what happened to your face and hands?”  
“I’ll tell you later Monkey, for now let’s just go to Uncle Steve’s,” after grabbing his gun, wallet and badge, he ushered his daughter out the door, locking up behind him. As they crossed the parking lot he kept his eyes peeled for any signs of trouble.   
A short time later they pulled into Steve’s driveway. Danny was relieved to see his truck there, it hadn’t even crossed his mind what he’d do if the other man was out. Grace was out of the car before Danny could even get his door open, reaching into the back to grab her bags.  
“Leave those, I’ll get them. You go and let Steve know we’re here,” he wanted to get his daughter inside. Shrugging Grace ran to the front door, knocked and opened it.  
“Uncle Steve?”  
Danny could hear his partner’s reply, “Grace? What are you doing here? Where’s Danny?”  
“He’s getting my bags out of the car,” she wrapped her arms round his waist in greeting.  
“Oh. Go and help yourself to a drink Grace and put the TV on if you want, I’ll be back in a minute,” Danny had never turned up on a Saturday with Grace unannounced, he always called first, something wasn’t right. When he stepped out his front door he knew for sure that something was wrong. Firstly Danny wasn’t driving the Camaro, secondly his whole body posture as he walked towards Steve carrying Grace’s things screamed of tension.  
“Danny? Is everything… Jesus, what happened to you?” he blurted out as he drew near enough to see Danny’s face.  
“Can we talk about this inside, please?” he shot an anxious glance around the area.  
Steve was even more worried now; the anxiety was rolling off Danny in waves, “Sure, come on,” once his partner was inside Steve locked the front door, earning a raised eyebrow from Danny, “You turn up here looking like you’ve been sitting in the sun all day without sun block, not driving the Camaro and furtively glancing around. Damn right I’m gonna lock my front door.” Walking through the sitting room he also went to the doors that led to the decking closing and locking those, “Grace, you stay here, your Dad and I will be in the study if you need anything.”  
“OK Uncle Steve,” she smiled up at the SEAL before turning her attention back to the cartoon she was watching.  
Danny put Grace’s bags down at the foot of the stairs before following Steve into his study and walking over to the window, staring out at the ocean.  
“What’s going on Danny?”  
Taking a deep breath and starting to pace Danny quickly told Steve what had happened with the letter this morning.  
“Damn! I’m calling Chin and Kono,” Steve stated. Danny didn’t argue, in fact given the situation he was being a lot quieter than the SEAL would have expected. He watched Danny pace the study as he made the phone calls, both their friends agreed to get to Steve’s straight away after hearing what had happened. Steve quickly went to check on Grace before returning to the study, a bottle of water in hand which he passed to Danny, “Here.” The other man didn’t stop in his pacing as Steve placed it on the desk, “Come on, stop pacing. Take a drink, breathe!”  
Danny picked up the bottle from the desk and absentmindedly went to open it, the movement causing him to hiss with pain. Steve was by his side immediately, taking the bottle from his hands and gently inspecting the reddened appendages. It was then that Steve realised that his partner was also shaking, “Shit. Come on, sit down,” pressing Danny down into the office chair, he took the lid off the water and handed it back, “Drink some of that, I’m going to get my first aid kit.”  
Steve checked on Grace once more as he came back down the stairs with his first aid kit and a blanket then went back into the study, dropping the kit on the desk. Danny was leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed in an attempt to get his anxiety under control.  
“Hey, it’s going to be alright Danny,” Steve rested his hand on the other man’s knee as he pulled up another chair, “Sit forward a minute,” once his partner had done as asked he slipped the blanket round the still shaking man’s shoulders.  
“A letter rigged to explode arrived at my home while Grace was there Steven! What if she’d opened it…” he paused to take a deep breath, to try and control his emotions.  
“She didn’t open it Danny. She is sitting in the other room watching cartoons, Grace is safe! I will not let anything happen to her. Or you.”  
“It’s just if she’d been standing in the kitchen next to me… Oh god I think I’m gonna puke!” Steve quickly produced a small bin and Danny promptly lost his breakfast into it. At his friend’s prompting he took another sip of water and rinsed his mouth out, “Thanks.”  
“I need to look at your hands and arms,” Steve reached out to take them just as a knock sounded at the door, “Don’t move, I’ll be right back,” when he opened his front door he was greeted by Kono, Chin and Malia.  
“I hope you don’t mind me bringing Malia, we were out at the beach together,” Chin looked a little uncertain.  
“No, of course not,” responded Steve, welcoming the woman into his home, “In fact I could use her help.”  
“Oh, what with?” asked Malia.  
“Danny’s got some burns, I was just about to try and treat them but you’d be better qualified for that,” Steve spoke softly so that Grace couldn’t hear.  
“Where is he?” she asked with obvious concern.  
“In the study,” he led the group back through the sitting room. They all took a moment to say hello to Grace and then followed Steve into the study.  
“Hi Danny,” Malia sat down in the chair that Steve had just vacated and gave him a cursory examination, “I can see that you’ve got some first degree burns to your face, show me your hands and arms,” the man did as instructed, “Any other burns or injuries?”  
“No.”  
“Steve, can I get a bowl of cool, not cold, water please?”  
“Yeah of course. Chin, Kono, why don’t you come with me and we’ll sort out what needs doing,” Steve took the bin with him to clean.  
“Can you both go over to Danny’s apartment? He locked it up and left the letter on the kitchen counter. Take it to forensics to see if they can get anything off it. Danny also said there was a return address with no name, see where that leads. Oh and track down the courier. Pack some stuff for him too; he’s going to be staying here for a while. He only thought to bring Grace’s things.”  
“No problem. I better check with Malia that she’s alright to stay here,” Chin advised his boss.  
“Damn sorry, I shouldn’t just assume. I can go with Kono.”  
“I think Danny and Grace would be more comfortable with you here. I’m sure Malia will be happy to stay until I get back, but I’ll just go and check with her first.”  
Steve took the bin into his downstairs bathroom to clean it, while he did that Kono searched for a reasonable sized bowl to fill with water. She was pretty sure that the woman would stay, as far as she was concerned Danny was now her patient.  
“Malia said she’s not going anywhere! She wants to clean Danny’s burns and keep an eye on him. Apparently the burns to his face are first degree, but the ones on his hands and arms are partial thickness second degree,” Chin said as he came back into the kitchen.  
“Does he need to go to the hospital?” Kono asked.  
“Not at the moment. There’s the chance that the burns can get worse over time but she’ll monitor them and if they do she’ll let us know.”  
“Alright Cuz, let’s go. We need Danny’s apartment keys.”  
“I’ve got them,” Chin replied, “He also asked me to return his neighbour’s car. He didn’t want to risk using the Camaro in case someone had tampered with it, so we need to get that checked as well.”  
“Call whoever you need to,” Steve instructed, “This takes priority as far as I’m concerned.”  
Nodding their agreement the cousins said goodbye to Grace, letting her know they’d be back later and then headed out the door. Steve locked it after they’d gone before returning to the study.  
Danny was still sitting in the desk chair but was leaning back with a damp washcloth that Steve had provided draped over his face. In other circumstances it might have looked comical. Malia had given Danny a couple of Tylenol extra strength that she’d found in Steve’s well equipped kit. Hoping that they’d had a chance to kick in she gently placed his hands in the large bowl of water provided. There was a hiss from Danny but no other reaction and they couldn’t see his face anyway. Malia removed the cloth from Danny’s face and handed it to Steve asking him to go and soak it again. When he came back he gently laid it across his partner’s face again and then left to sit with Grace.  
Ten minutes later she removed the washcloth and patted his face and then his hands dry. She had already pulled out some sterile gel burn dressings and lightly wrapped these round Danny’s hands and arms after applying some antibiotic ointment.  
“You need to make sure you keep moving your fingers, I know it hurts but if you don’t then the skin will tighten and it could cause other problems for you,” she squeezed his knee sympathetically when she saw him wince as he moved his fingers a little, “When did you have your last tetanus?”  
“A couple of years ago.”  
“That’s good then, I don’t need to get you a booster,” she smiled at him.  
“Well thank heavens for small mercies then,” he tried to return the smile but wasn’t very successful since his face was a little sore.  
Steve poked his head round the corner, “How we doing in here?”  
“All done, for now. He’ll be due for some more Tylenol in about five and a half hours, I’ll check the burns again then to make sure they’ve not evolved into more serious burns.”  
“Danny, are you up to talking to Grace?”  
“Yeah, just give me a couple of minutes.”  
Malia and Steve left the room to give Danny some much needed privacy to gather himself before he spoke with his daughter. Once they’d reached Steve’s and she was safe he’d been so desperate to tell Steve what had happened that his focus hadn’t been where he knew it should have. Then with Malia coming in and taking over the care of his burns… There was no way he had wanted Grace to see him getting them treated, at least now the horrible red and blistered skin was covered up.  
“Is Danno OK?” Grace asked Steve quietly.  
“Why don’t you grab a bottle of water from the fridge for him and take it through to the study and ask him?” suggested Steve. He knew Danny had wanted some time to gather himself, but avoiding his daughter wasn’t going to help.  
“OK,” Grace got up, went into the kitchen for the suggested bottle of water and then headed for the study, “Danno?”   
Opening his eyes Danny sat up in the chair and looked at his daughter. Her eyes were wide with fear and his heart lurched because he had been the cause of it, “Come here Monkey.”  
“Uncle Steve thought you might like some water,” she indicated the bottle in her hand.  
“Thanks Grace, put it on the desk for me please.”  
“Are you OK?” her eyes had taken in the redness of his face and the bandages covering his hands and arms.  
“Hop on my lap.”  
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she knew bandages meant injuries.  
“You won’t hurt me Grace, come on.” The little girl climbed carefully on to her Dad’s lap and snuggled against his chest, “You remember that bang you heard earlier,” he felt her nod, “Someone sent me a letter and it had something in there that made that noise and caused some minor burns. You know Malia’s a doctor right?” another nod, “Well she has treated them and, although I’m a little sore, I will be just fine.”  
“Who sent it?”  
“I don’t know Monkey. Whoever it was isn’t very nice but Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono are trying to find the person. Until they find them we’ll stay with Uncle Steve for the weekend. Is that alright?”  
“Uh huh,” she looked up at her Dad, “Chin and Kono will find the person that hurt you Danno and then Uncle Steve will throw him in the shark cage!”  
Danny spluttered slightly at that, “Where, I mean, what, ah… Uncle Steve will do no such thing! He will arrest them and put them behind bars where all bad people should go.”  
“You won’t get hurt again?”  
“Grace, look at me,” he lifted her chin gently with his bandaged hand, “You know I can’t make any promises that I won’t ever get hurt, but I want you to know that no matter what happens to me, no matter how bad or frightening, I will always try to come back to you and if for some reason I can’t, you will have Uncle Steve, Uncle Chin and Auntie Kono to look out for you.”  
“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” Grace started to cry softly.  
“Oh Monkey, I don’t want anything to happen to me either! Danno loves you so much and you’re my reason for being here on this island. I will make you the only promise I can. I will always try to come back to you and this crazy Ohana of ours, but if I can’t I will always love you.”  
“I love you too Danno,” she curled up into her Dad as she cried and all he could do was rock her back and forth gently trying to soothe her.  
Eventually the crying stopped and turned into gentle hiccups and then her breathing evened out as she drifted off to sleep. Danny closed his eyes. He hated the fact that he had to have these kinds of conversations with his daughter, but she was very smart and he needed her to understand that no matter what happened to him he would always love her, she needed to hear that just in case the worst ever happened, he never wanted her to doubt that her Danno loved her.  
Steve looked in on the pair about half an hour later and found them both sleeping. Unwilling to disturb them he crept back out of the room and sat talking quietly with Malia.

 

-5-0-

 

A sleepy Grace wandered into the sitting room, “Uncle Steve,” she mumbled.  
“Hey Gracie,” he knelt down in front of her, “You alright?”  
“Could I have a drink please?”  
The SEAL smiled as he watched her rub sleep from her eyes, “Of course you can. Why don’t you go and sit with Malia and I’ll get one for you. Is your Dad still sleeping?”  
“Uh huh,” she replied as she flopped down on the couch next to Malia. Steve went to get her a drink and the child looked at the woman next to her, “Auntie Malia?”  
The woman was a little surprised by the title of Auntie, but she was also flattered. Chin spoke about the team and Grace all the time and it was nice to feel part of their Ohana, “Yes Grace?”  
“Is Danno going to be alright? He said you treated him, so you would know.”  
“Yes, he’s going to be fine Grace. It’s going to take a few weeks for the burns on his hands to heal and they’re going to hurt, but I predict a full recovery,” she smiled down at Grace.  
“It’s just…”  
“What is it?”  
“He was mumbling in his sleep. It woke me up…”  
Steve had come back in the room, handed Grace a glass of milk and exchanged concerned looks with Malia.  
“Did you hear what he was saying?” she prompted.  
“Not really, but it was… he sounded upset. He stopped when I got off his lap.”  
Malia lifted Grace on to her lap so she could bring her into an embrace, “It was probably just a dream. I am sure the noise gave him a bit of a shock this morning, how about if Uncle Steve goes to check on him?”  
“OK.”  
Steve leaned over and kissed the top of Grace’s head. She was so like her father, always worrying about other people. She’d had quite a fright herself this morning but her only concern was her Danno. When Steve entered the study he was greeted by a half awake Danny.   
“Hey, how are you feeling?”  
“Like I’m living in a nightmare!”  
“We’ll get the person or people responsible for this Danny and in the meantime you and Grace can stay here. In fact I insist on it. Chin and Kono are picking some things up for you.”  
“Thanks man, I really appreciate it,” Danny went to rub his hands through his hair and then realised he couldn’t as he caught sight of the bandages and sighed, “Malia said it would be two to three weeks for these burns to heal, that’s if they don’t progress on to full thickness burns. How the hell am I supposed to manage when I go back to my apartment on Monday?”  
“Who said you’re going back to your apartment Monday?”  
“Well Grace will be going back to Rachel, so there’s no need for me to stay here.”  
“Like hell there isn’t. Danny someone targeted you in your own home, a place you haven’t actually lived very long. There is no way you’re going back there until this person is locked up! Anyway, you said yourself you won’t be able to manage!”  
“I really liked that apartment you know, a small bedroom for Grace and a separate one for me, no more sleeping on a fold out. Now…” he shrugged, not wanting to express in words that he didn’t think he’d feel safe there again, it would be a sign of weakness to say it.  
“Hey! There’s nothing wrong with not feeling safe somewhere. It took me a while to feel comfortable here after the Yakuza broke in and stole the CHAMP box. I fitted a new alarm and security system which helped.”  
“This isn’t someone breaking in though; this is someone having a letter sent to me. How the hell can I do anything about that to make me feel safe there again?”  
“You have options Danny. Get your mail sent to the Palace, it’ll be screened. Worst case scenario you look for somewhere else to live but I don’t want you worrying about that right now. We’ll worry about that once the person responsible is behind bars.”  
“Grace said you’d drop them in a shark cage!”  
“You want me to? I can if you want, just say the word!” Steve grinned at his partner as he rolled his eyes.  
“No, Steve, I don’t want you to drop them in a shark cage. If Grace had been hurt then all bets would be off and it would be me dropping them in the ocean with the sharks, without a cage for protection!”  
“And I’d be right there with you brah! Come on, why don’t you come into the sitting room. We’ll get Grace to pick out a film to watch. Chin and Kono should be back soon and then we’ll have some lunch.”  
“Sounds like a plan,” Danny struggled to stand as he couldn’t use his hands to push himself up, so Steve slid his hand under his upper arm and helped him. The two men walked through to the sitting room and Steve repeated the action to help Danny into one of his recliners.  
When Chin and Kono returned they found Danny still in the recliner with Grace on his lap as they watched Finding Nemo.  
“Grace, why don’t you go and sit with Malia while Steve, Chin, Kono and I talk,” Danny suggested gently.  
“OK,” she scrambled off his lap and curled up on the couch next to Malia.  
Steve helped Danny to his feet and the four 5-0 members went into the kitchen to discuss what Chin and Kono had found.  
“Charlie looked at the letter. There were no fingerprints, except the courier’s and yours Danny. The amount of explosive was so small that it wasn’t intended to do much damage, it was more of a warning.”  
“Well I heard it, loud and clear!”  
“The bomb squad checked the Camaro, it was clean,” Chin took the keys out of his pocket and placed them on Steve’s kitchen counter.  
“The courier company said that the letter was dropped off at their New Jersey office. They’ve requested that the security footage is sent to us, we should have that later today. The return address doesn’t exist,” Kono finished.  
“No real surprise there then,” sighed Danny.  
“I’m going back to the office to wait for the security footage, maybe we’ll get something from that,” there was an underlying tone of determination in Kono’s voice.  
“Look, why don’t we all have lunch first. Then Kono and I will go back to the office and view the footage. Chin, Malia and Danny can stay here with Grace.”  
“Yes to the lunch. No to you going to the office,” Chin told Steve, “We already discussed this earlier, if Malia would like to go home then I’ll drop her off. We’ll come back tonight to update you on what we find.”  
“OK, but I’ll be throwing steaks on the grill for dinner. Malia is welcome to stay or come back for dinner if she’d like to,” offered Steve, “In the meantime can someone, other than the man with the bandaged hands, help me get lunch organised?”  
“I’ll give you a hand, Danny go back in and sit down,” instructed Kono.  
When Danny had left the room the cousins turned to their boss, “How’s he doing?”  
“He’s worried that he’s not going to feel safe in the apartment anymore. I’ve told him we’ll discuss options once the person or people doing this have been caught, until then he’s staying here.”  
“That’s good. He’s going to need help until those burns have healed,” Malia said as she entered the kitchen, “Danny said you were getting lunch, can I help?”  
“Sure, could you grab some chips out of the cupboard and put them in a bowl for me please,” Steve pointed to the cupboards that she’d need.  
“Malia, I’m sorry but I need to go back to the Palace this afternoon, would you like me to drop you home? Steve says you’re welcome to stay here and he’s going to grill some steaks for dinner.”  
“I’d like to stay, if you don’t mind Steve?”  
“Not at all. Once lunch is done I need to go to the store…”  
“Make a list and I’ll go, you can stay with Danny. I’ll also top up the supplies for your first aid kit as you’ll need more burn dressings,” the woman smiled.  
“Chin, you’ve got a keeper there! I hate going to the store, especially on a Saturday!” chuckled Steve.  
“Hey, hands off. She’s spoken for!” Chin grabbed Malia in a tight embrace to underline his point.  
With everyone’s help sandwiches were made and lunch was organised. They ate in the sitting room and although Danny found it a bit awkward with his bandaged hands, as well as a little painful, he managed to eat the sandwich and some chips. Malia then ushered him back to the study to check his burns. By the time she’d finished and Danny was once more in Steve’s recliner he was a good few shades paler than he should have been.  
“What’s the verdict?” Chin asked.  
“The burns haven’t evolved. Still second degree partial thickness but they’re unlikely to get any worse now. I put fresh dressings on which should be fine until tomorrow morning when Danny can have a shower and then more new dressings can be put on. I’m going to go to the store now. Steve, can you give Danny some more Tylenol extra strength?”  
“Will do,” Steve handed her the list of things that he needed for dinner that night, “Thanks for doing this.” Malia simply smiled.  
Chin and Kono left soon after to go to the Palace to view the security footage from the courier’s New Jersey offices.  
Steve handed Danny a bottle of water and the pills that Malia had instructed he should have. His partner took them gratefully before Grace climbed back on his lap and they settled down to watch another movie she’d found on TV.

 

-5-0-

 

Malia, Steve and Grace spent the afternoon skipping through various channels as things were found that they wanted to watch. Danny slept most of the afternoon. Steve was worried that he wouldn’t sleep that night, but Malia insisted that it was unlikely to be a problem as she had picked up some Tylenol PM which should help him sleep.  
Ordinarily Grace would have been chomping at the bit to go outside and play on the beach but what had happened that morning made her want to stay close to Danny and her Uncle. Steve also would normally be outside but knew that Danny would want his daughter to stay nearby and sitting out in the heat of the day was not going to help his burns feel any better.  
The injured man hadn’t long woken when Chin and Kono returned with news about the security footage. Once again the team left Grace with Malia and adjourned to the kitchen.  
“Well we know who sent the letter and you’re not going to like it!” stated Kono.  
“Who?”  
“Shane Warner,” Chin supplied.  
“He’s in New Jersey?!”  
“Well, he was in New Jersey. We don’t know if he’s still there now. We’ve put a call into NJPD and got an alert out on his credit cards and bank account but it looks like he’s dropped off the face of the earth, for now at least.”  
Danny groaned and dropped his head into his hands, a movement which he regretted the moment he completed it but had been entirely instinctual, “Shit!”  
Nobody was sure if he was cursing because he’d just caused himself pain or because Shane Warner had made it off the island and had managed to send him a letter bomb, nobody questioned it.  
“Well if he’s not on the island anymore I suppose I can at least go back to my apartment.”  
“No. Absolutely not!” Steve growled.  
“Why, he’s not here to do me any harm. I just won’t open any mail that I’m not expecting.”  
“Danny you moved into that apartment after Shane Warner pulled his disappearing act. He knows your address, there’s nothing stopping him from sending associates after you there.”  
“I hate it when you’re the voice of reason,” sighed Danny.  
“So you’ll stay here then?”  
“Yes, Steven, I’ll stay here, for now. I will not stay here indefinitely though babe. I’ll give it a couple of weeks, Malia said it will be that long before my hands will have healed enough for me to do some of the things that I currently can’t.”  
“Fair enough,” Steve nodded; he understood where his partner was coming from. He hadn’t let Wo Fat stop him from living in his home, why should Danny let Shane Warner stop him. At least he had agreed to stay while his hands and arms healed, “Right, let’s get the grill going!”  
The next few hours were spent trying to distract Danny from all that had happened. As the decking area was cast into a cool shadow with a gentle breeze he was coaxed outside to sit on the deck, while Steve and Kono took Grace for a swim while the grill heated up. Once the grill was ready to cook on Chin and Malia joined Kono and Grace building sandcastles, leaving Steve to keep an eye on Danny and cook their steaks.  
The dinner was a success, although their favourite New Jersey detective didn’t manage to eat as much as normal and was definitely not flinging his hands around as he talked. It seemed he accepted that for the next couple of weeks he would be living with Steve and would also be kept to desk duty. An inconvenience and frustrating, but at least he was around to do it.  
After everyone had left and Grace was in bed, Steve gave Danny the Tylenol PM that Malia had bought for him to take at night.  
“I promise you Danny, no matter where Warner is, we’ll find him and put him away!”  
“I know Steve, but I’m not planning on putting my life on hold until we do, though I’ll have to be more aware when Grace is around.”  
“You can stay here anytime Danno. You know that, right?”  
“Thanks Steve. All I could think of this morning was getting Grace somewhere safe. You’d think that would mean back to Rachel and Stan’s gated mansion but it wasn’t, it was anywhere you were. I knew I couldn’t protect her on my own with this,” he indicated his injured arms.  
“I’m glad you think that Grace would be safe with me.”  
“You kidding me? If anything were to happen to me you’re one of the few people I know that would take my place in protecting her with your life!”  
“Not just if anything were to happen to you, Danny.”  
“Yeah, I know and I appreciate it more than words can ever express.”  
The two men shared an awkward hug, given that Danny had to be careful of his arms and hands, then they both checked on Grace. They stood in the doorway of ‘her’ room and watched her sleeping, content that the child they both loved was safe.


End file.
